


A Slip of the Tongue

by That_G3_Obsessive



Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Identity Reveal, Sort Of, basically jekyll is high as a kite, you can guess what happens next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_G3_Obsessive/pseuds/That_G3_Obsessive
Summary: or, why Dr. Henry Jekyll should avoid pain killers.
Relationships: Edward Hyde & Dr. Henry Jekyll & Dr. Robert Lanyon, Edward Hyde & Rachel Pidgley, Robert Lanyon & Rachel Pidgley
Comments: 13
Kudos: 110





	A Slip of the Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is not compliant with the comic canon. It's just for fun :)

When Robert Lanyon entered the Society, he immediately picked up on the tense, nervous air surrounding the lodgers. He spotted several of them huddled in a corner, whispering fervently among themselves. He ignored them, instead making a beeline for the infirmary.

Lavender and Ito were standing outside of the door when he arrived. They looked a little concerned, which sent Lanyon’s heart racing.

“Ah, Dr. Lanyon,” said Ito, turning to face him. “You certainly got here fast.”

“Yes, well, your call was quite urgent,” replied Lanyon, trying to hide his nerves. “How is he?”

“Doing better,” said Lavender. “The wounds have been cleaned and dressed, and he woke up not long ago.”

Lanyon sighed in relief. “That’s wonderful to hear. He’ll make a full recovery then?”

Lavender nodded. “The only real concern at this point is infection, but as long as we keep an eye on it, he should be fine.”

“Do you know what happened?” he asked. “Ito only said that he was injured.”

“An explosion,” said Ito. “Mr. Luckett and Mr. Sinnett decided to work together on a project, which detonated right as Dr. Jekyll was stopping by to check on it. He was burned, and had a few pieces of shrapnel in his hands, arms, and chest.”

“Nothing fatal, though!” Lavender added. “Right now all he needs is rest, and he’ll be just fine in a few weeks!”

Lanyon swallowed and glanced at the door. “Can I see him?”

Lavender and Ito exchanged a look.

“Well, _yes,_ but we really ought to warn you…” Lavender trailed off.

“I gave him one of my new potions,” Ito said. “It’s meant to help with pain, but it does have some… unusual side effects.”

“You’re testing your potions on him?!” exclaimed Lanyon.

“No, of course not!” Ito retorted. “It’s worked fine for weeks now. The only problem is that the side effects tend to vary from person to person, and Dr. Jekyll is having a… strong reaction.”

Lanyon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. What are the side effects?”

“He’s very… happy,” said Lavender, her face breaking into a small smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him laugh so much before. And he keeps talking to his reflection in the mirror. It’s really quite odd…”

“Basically, he’s high,” Ito interrupted. “It’ll wear off with the potion, but until then, he’s going to act very strange.”

“I… alright. Thank you, Miss Ito, Miss Lavender,” Lanyon said, nodding to each. “May I go in now?”

“Miss Pidgley’s already in there,” said Lavender. “Go right ahead, and please, call us if you need anything.”

With that, Lanyon opened the infirmary door and stepped inside.

_“Robert!”_ gasped Jekyll from the bed. “You’re here!”

“Hello, Lanyon,” said Rachel in a much more subdued tone, although her eyes betrayed a spark of amusement.

“Hello,” responded Lanyon, taking a seat on the opposite side of the bed from Rachel. “Henry, how are you feeling?”

“’M all… _floaty,”_ slurred Jekyll, giving a goofy grin to Lanyon.

Lanyon took a moment to inspect Jekyll. The doctor was sitting upright in the bed, supported by pillows. A blanket hid his lower half, while his torso was covered with a loose white shirt. Lanyon could see the edge of bandages poking above the neckline. His hands were completely wrapped, with only the fingertips peeking out.

Jekyll’s head appeared to be mostly fine, with the exception of a small bandage on his right temple. His eyes were extremely dilated; Lanyon could barely make out a thin ring of red around the wide, black pupils.

Rachel snickered, turning to Lanyon. “Don’t bother trying to get anything useful out of him,” she said. “He’s totally out of it.”

Jekyll looked to Lanyon, then to Rachel, then back to Lanyon again, his smile softening. “Rachel ‘n… ‘n _Lanyon,”_ he mumbled. “You’re here?”

“We’re right here, my friend,” said Lanyon, placing a hand on the bed.

“My friends,” sighed Jekyll, leaning back with a contented expression. “You’re… you’re my _best friends.”_

Lanyon blinked, meeting Rachel’s eyes. He’d never heard Jekyll be so… _affectionate,_ before.

Rachel snickered again. “He’s been like this since he woke up,” she said. “It’s _hilarious.”_

“You really shouldn’t be making fun,” scolded Lanyon. “He’s not in his right mind! He needs—I don’t know, _support,_ or—”

_“No,”_ said Jekyll, frowning now. He appeared to be glaring at his reflection in the full length mirror on the other side of the room. “They’re _my_ best friends, get your own.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow.

_Fine._ Lanyon supposed that it was a little funny.

“Hey, watch this,” said Rachel with a smirk. “You know, Dr. Jay, you can’t have _two_ best friends. It’s against the rules.”

“…Rules?” asked Jekyll.

Rachel nodded solemnly. “Yes, the friendship rules. You can have lots of friends, but only one can be the _best._ ”

Jekyll looked absolutely heartbroken.

“Oh come now, Rachel,” said Lanyon. “Don’t make him feel bad!”

Before Rachel could respond, Jekyll’s sad expression morphed into something more contemplative.

“’S…’s only one best friend per… per person?”

Rachel nodded again. “’Fraid so.”

For some reason, this seemed to cheer Jekyll up.

“Then I can have two!” he said, his bright smile back in full force. “’Cause I’m two people!”

“What?” asked Lanyon. He wasn’t sure if he’d heard that correctly.

“You’re… two people?” Rachel repeated. Her mouth quirked, like she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or not.

Jekyll ignored her. “There’s one for each,” he hummed to himself. He pointed at Lanyon. “One for Jekyll—” He switched to pointing at Rachel, “—and one for Hyde!”

“Hyde? What does Master Hyde have to do with this?” asked Rachel.

Lanyon sent her a confused look. How could she be so… calm, with Jekyll talking nonsense like this?

_Just go along with it,_ she mouthed, giving him a wink.

“You’re his… his _best friend!”_ said Jekyll, like it should have been obvious.

“Aw, that’s very sweet of him,” she said. “He’s my best friend, too.”

Jekyll frowned. “I dunno why you’d wanna be friends with _him,”_ he said. “He’s mean.”

“Oh, Edward’s not that bad. He just likes to act mean.”

“He’s _mean,”_ Jekyll repeated. “He yells at me… all th’ time!”

“That is rather… mean,” said Lanyon. “What does he yell at you for?”

“He says, _‘Shut up, Jekyll, you idiot, you’re gonna tell them everything!’_ ” Jekyll sniffed. “There’s lots more curse words, but ‘m not sayin’ those.”

Rachel blinked in shock. “That’s… a really good Hyde impression,” she said, exchanging a concerned glance with Lanyon. “When did he say that to you?”

“Right now.”

“Right… right now?”

“Mmhmm,” Jekyll hummed. “He’s yellin’ at me ‘cause ‘m not supposed t’ be tellin’ you about him.”

Lanyon swallowed. Jekyll had to be hallucinating, right? He glanced at the door, wondering if he should get Ito.

_But… what if this is based on something real?_ he thought. Though Lanyon had never met Edward Hyde in person, the rumors pointed to him being the type of person to yell at Jekyll. And Jekyll did seem to be more stressed than usual as of late…

_Keep him talking,_ he thought. _Just until the drugs wear off. Then I can confront him about this later._

Looking over at Rachel, he could see that she had reached the same conclusion.

“You… you can tell us about him, Henry,” said Lanyon. “You can tell us anything.”

“’S a secret,” said Jekyll, looking deathly serious despite his slurred words. “’S a _big_ secret. We can’t tell _anyone,_ or they’ll stick us in th’ looney bin.”

“You… you mean the asylum?” Lanyon asked. “Why would they send you to the asylum?”

“’Cause… ‘cause they’ll think we’re crazy!” Jekyll groaned, his eyes squeezing shut. “ _Ugh…_ Rachel, c’n… can you tell Hyde to stop screaming? My head hurts…”

Rachel hesitated. “Uh… where _is_ Hyde?” she asked.

Jekyll pointed at the mirror, cracking his eyes open just enough to glare at his reflection.

Rachel looked unsure but turned to face the mirror anyway. “Edward,” she said, “would you please stop… screaming? You’re giving Henry a headache.”

Jekyll groaned again and clapped his hands over his ears.

_It sounds like he’s in real pain!_ thought Lanyon. _This has to stop!_

Just as he was about to stand up to fetch Ito, Rachel added, “I’ll bake a batch of cookies just for you if you stop!”

All of a sudden, Jekyll’s frown melted away and he lowered his hands. “Thank you…”

Rachel’s jaw dropped. “That… that _worked?”_

Lanyon leaned forward, gently grabbing one of Jekyll’s bandaged hands between his own. “Henry, what just happened? What… how is Hyde screaming? He’s not…”

Jekyll opened his mouth to respond, but paused, his eyes narrowing at the mirror again. “What’re you—?”

Then Jekyll’s body seized, sitting up straight in bed.

Lanyon jumped up as the hand in his grasp started to violently twitch. Jekyll’s eyes widened then squeezed shut again.

_“St-stop… it!”_ he gasped, shaking his head back and forth.

Then he collapsed backwards into the pillows, his head lolling sideways.

_“Henry!”_ cried Rachel, grabbing one of his shoulders.

Lanyon stood abruptly. “I’m getting Ito,” he said. “Obviously something is wrong with the potion—”

_“Don’t you dare.”_

Rachel and Lanyon both jumped. Jekyll grunted, rolling his neck until his head was up straight. And when he opened his eyes…

Lanyon had to bite back a scream. Instead of dilated black, or even Jekyll’s normal red, these eyes burned a bright, electric green.

“H…Henry?” whispered Lanyon.

Jekyll’s face broke into a sneer. It looked wrong on him.

“Nope,” he said, in a much higher pitch than usual. “Try again.”

Rachel’s face went pale. _“Edward?”_

He wiggled his eyebrows with a confident smirk. “In the flesh,” he— _Hyde?_ —said. “Or Jekyll’s flesh, anyway.”

“I—what— _how?”_ Lanyon sputtered. “What is going _on?”_

Hyde sneered at him again, but whatever response he was about to give was interrupted by a full body shudder.

He grimaced. “Ugh. I don’t have much time like this. I’m only able to take control in the first place ‘cause Jekyll’s drugged out of his mind, but he won’t stay down forever.”

“What are you doing to him?” demanded Lanyon. “You—If you hurt him, I—I swear, I’ll—!”

“What part of _‘I don’t have time’_ don’t you understand?” Hyde hissed. He shuddered again. “Just listen: Jekyll can explain everything, but only when he’s _sober._ Stop trying to get any information out of him while he’s like this. You’ll just get confusing answers and he’ll say stuff that neither of us want shared.”

“So—so what, you want us to just _sit here_ and _watch_ while you take over his body?” said Lanyon.

“It’s my body, too, you idiot! _Gah!”_ Hyde flinched hard, screwing up his face in concentration. “Look, both of you need to just _go away_ until Jekyll’s back to normal. In fact, I don’t want any visitors at all, got it? And you need to keep your mouths shut until Jekyll can explain. No one else can know about this!”

“But—”

“Okay,” interrupted Rachel. “We’ll keep it a secret.”

Hyde grinned. “Knew there was a reason you’re my favorite.”

Lanyon scowled. “We can’t just _ignore_ this—”

“We’re not ignoring it,” said Rachel with a stern look. “We’re waiting until Henry can explain. That’s all.”

“Now both of you— _out!”_ snapped Hyde, shooing them with his bandaged hands. “And tell Ito to lower the dosage, would you? All this responsibility is supposed to be Jekyll’s job!”

“Got it.” Rachel marched over and started to pull Lanyon away. “I had better get that explanation, though, Edward.”

Hyde smirked. “As long as I get those cookies.”

And with that, Rachel rolled her eyes and pushed Lanyon out of the room.

* * *

As Jekyll slowly came back to consciousness, the first thing he registered was a persistent, stinging pain all across his body, especially in his hands. His brain felt clouded up, his thoughts all muddied up and sticking together. He kept his eyes closed, not quite ready to face what was making him so uncomfortable.

_‘Finally awake, are we?’_

Jekyll groaned, scrunching his eyes tighter. If his torso didn’t hurt so much, he would have rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head.

_‘Come on, get up. We need to talk.’_

“Can’t it wait?” Jekyll mumbled. His tongue felt heavy and clumsy. “Just… a few more minutes…”

_‘Get UP!’_ Hyde shouted, poking hard at Jekyll’s consciousness. _‘NOW!’_

“Alright, alright…” said Jekyll, finally opening his eyes.

For a moment he didn’t recognize his surroundings, until he realized that he was in the infirmary. _What happened? How did I get here?_ he thought.

His eyes found their way to the full-length mirror along the opposite wall, and there was Hyde. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed’s reflection, glaring at Jekyll.

_‘The lodgers brought you in after the explosion,’_ said Hyde, his voice clipped. _‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?’_

“I…” Jekyll wracked his brain. He vaguely remembered an explosion, then pain, then darkness, and then…

_‘Oh my god, you have, haven’t you?’_ Hyde scoffed. _‘Typical. Absolutely_ bloody _typical.’_

“Just tell me what happened,” snapped Jekyll. “Without the sarcasm, please.”

Hyde rolled his eyes. _‘Oh, nothing,’_ he said, _‘just you running your mouth and telling Lanyon and Rachel all about our secret.’_

_“What?!”_ exclaimed Jekyll. He quickly covered his mouth when he heard movement on the other side of the door.

He brought his voice down to a whisper. “What do you mean? When did I tell them?”

_‘Ito gave you some sort of pain-relief potion,’_ Hyde explained. _‘Made your mind all screwy.’_ His mouth quirked into a smile. _‘It was almost funny, if you hadn’t been such a blabbermouth.’_

Jekyll cursed. “What happened? Did they tell anyone? Did I say anything else?”

Hyde spread his hands, a knowing smirk on his face. _‘Luckily, I was able to take control away from drugged-you and peacefully resolve the situation.’_

“You? Peaceful?” Jekyll gave him a flat look.

_‘Fine. I told them to come back once you were back from La-La Land and make you explain it.’_

Jekyll buried his head in his hands to groan dramatically, but pulled them away with a hiss as soon as he touched the sensitive wounds.

Hyde just laughed at him. _‘You’d better come up with something soon,_ Doctor _,’_ he mocked, _‘because I get the feeling that they’ll be back sooner rather than later.’_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> I just recently read all of TGS and I'm in love with it, so I had to contribute to the fandom somehow! This fic was just a goofy idea that I had to get out. It's not really edited that much, so forgive any clunky parts!
> 
> If you liked this, consider leaving kudos or a comment! I love to hear your feedback!
> 
> Follow me on [my main Tumblr](https://that-g3-obsessive.tumblr.com/) or [my art blog](https://that-g3-artist.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Have a lovely day! :)


End file.
